YESSSS!

A man from the St Louis Water Division just came to my door and told me that they will be shutting off my water for a while for a scheduled maintenance check-up. I guess this means I can't do the dishes in the sink. Or the laundry. Oh darn.

Babler State Park

Well, I got Daniel to come home early from studying Saturday and we drove a little ways out of the city to Babler State park and walked around. I would say hiked around, but there weren't any hills or anything so it was more of a walk than a hike. Here are some photos of our trip.


This was the bridge that we started on. There wasn't any water below it though.

Don't you like her jacket? It has little pants that go with it that have feet with paw prints on the bottom. We decided to forgo those though because I let her get down and walk around a little after the walk and it would have gotten those really dirty.

We did have to stop part of the way through because mommy and baby both got hungry. I had a really yummy chicken salad sandwich and Charlotte had really yummy mommy's milk.

Here we are at the end of the hike. I just realized that not only are we both wearing pink, but we are both wearing clothing that Aunt Katie got for us! Kinda funny huh?

Charlotte figured out that her tongue doesn't always have to be inside of her mouth. In fact she finds it very fun for it to be outside of her mouth now!

In other news, remember those "allergies" that Charlotte and I caught of Dan's a little less than a month ago? Well, I got the cold and got over it, but Charlotte didn't very well. She's all over it except for this cough. A persistent cough that is deep in her chest, but doesn't really do a whole lot except for keep us all up at night. I'm thinking about getting a humidifier. What do you think? Is it worth the investment or should we just tough it out for a little? She's going to the doctor as soon as possible (hopefully next week) since she's now almost 7 months old and still hasn't had her 6 month appointment. If she's still got the cough then I'll bring it up, but I really hope she's over it by then.

Free Time

When we moved here Daniel's faculty group leader gave each member of her group that was married and/or had kids (which was 100% of us) a small book called, "Favorite Places to go with Kids in Saint Louis." I know it's a very catchy name. My mother is coming into town next weekend and I've been perusing the book for a few days now so that her whole trip will be loaded with fun for the whole family. I'm so excited. I wasn't thinking about planning anything, but then Danny Bobby kept asking me if he thought my mom would like to do x, or wouldn't it be fun to take her to y so I figured I should get a plan together. We don't necessarily have to go by the plan, but things always go better when there is a plan. Good news, the forecast for next weekend has Saturday and Sunday sunny and mid 70's. That's still a ways off, especially since both Friday and Monday are supposed to be rainy, but I'm still making plans. It's gonna be good.

So here I was looking at my booklet thinking that some of these things would be fun to do today. The only hang-ups were that (1) my baby cried for a solid hour today and I had no idea why or how to stop it. She cried until she passed out with exhaustion. Hopefully she'll wake up totally over that whole I'm mad at the world attitude. (2) My husband is studying today.

Well, I can't do a whole lot about (1) but hope for a better future. As far as my husband studying I decided I'd call him and see what he's up to. When I asked him how long he'll be studying for he said, "A while still. Why?" I told him that if he studied until around 2 or so then we could still go out hiking or something and wouldn't that be fun? But if he had to keep studying I totally understood since next Friday is his anatomy final. He's so awesome. He said that 4 more hours of studying would probably do him pretty well and then we could go. Now my only question is where to. Choices, choices, choices. Oh I do love free time!

The Hill

So there's a part of St. Louis called the hill. It's where all the Italians live. I know this because the street signs say, "The Hill" with an Italian flag on it. My only question is that where does the hill start? There isn't really a hill so I can't figure out why it is called that and where the geographic location starts. There's a commercial on TV that says this car place is, "right at the enterance to the hill." I just don't get it.

I remember going swimming with my next door neighbor, Kim, when I was younger. She had these snorkeling goggles so we would take turns putting them on and swimming upside down on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. It was so surreal looking up at people, the room and the lights through the top of the water. Eventually we got up our nerve and swam with them to the deep end of the pool, which I'm sure was around 5 feet, but since we couldn't touch it was deep. I remember looking up at the shallow end and thinking how silly I was when I thought the bottom of that was deep.

The past couple of days I've had that same feeling, only not been able to quite put it into words. That's why I haven't really been posting all that much. I've thought it through now so I figured I'd try to share it. This next part is going to sound really, really silly though. I feel that the pool I am swimming in is my love for those around me, and specifically my family. I was swimming around the bottom of the shallow end of the pool gazing around thinking I had this deep love. It seems that in the last months, and probably triggered by having my baby, I have finally ventured out into the deep end of the pool and my love for them is so, so much more. The funny thing is I don't really think it appears to be any more than it was a few short months ago. So here's what I've been thinking I want to say to my family.

Charlotte
I love you so much that every time I think about it tears just start coming. You are so, so amazing just because you are you. I think you are beautiful and strong and funny and smart, but I want you to know that's not why I love you. Even if you were none of those things I would still love you because you are my baby and you are amazing. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the blessing it is to be your mom and I pray for the knowledge of the skills I need to meet your needs mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. I feel that because of you I have become a stronger, milder, and more open minded person. I love you.

Daniel
I love you more than I can ever express to you. Sometimes I just burst inside to try and get that across to you. I can't imagine being any happier with my chosen partner on our path as husband and wife. You truly are smarter than the average bear and I am so, so, so proud to be the wife that stands next to you. I think you complement me so well--at times holding me up and at times being held up by me. You are smart and handsome and strong and truly gifted, but again, like Charlotte, that's not why I love you. I love you for just being you, and for letting me see all of you. There are somethings I want you to never stop doing because I cherish them so. I want you to never stop making up silly songs to sing to our children, I love hearing them from the other room as you sing them to Charlotte in the tub. I want you to never stop being, "funny, funny" even though sometimes I don't laugh right away. You always know how to make me laugh. I want you to never stop trying your best to make me feel protected and provided for. I love that about your masculinity. We had heard that the third year of marriage is a hard one, which may be true for some. We have also heard that the first year of medical school is a hard one, which may be true for others. I just want you to know that I am proud of what we are doing and I am loving you for your efforts more and more each day.

Daddy
I love you and I can't thank you enough for being my dad! I feel like I won in the daddy lottery! Thank you so, so much for being my dad and giving me so much of yourself! I am learning more and more each day how hard it is to raise children in a righteous way. It is hard, but you have also taught me that it is worth it and it has plenty of perks along the way. I am so sorry when I think about how hard on you I was when I was in high school. I just want you to know that I appreciate and value you as an amazing man and a wonderful father. You are strong, patient, smart, spiritual, and funny. That is not why I love you though. I love you because you loved me first. I know that you worry about me because I know I will never stop worrying about my baby. Thank you for your love and support.

Mom
I love you and I can't believe how shallow my love for you has been until now. Now that I understand what it means to have a mother's love. Now that I know what it's like to worry over every choice I make and my child makes. You worked so hard for Katie and me! And now I realize that your job is not over, even though both of us are out on our own. Being a mom is forever and I am so glad that you are mine. You have taught me so much about what that means and I am realizing more and more each day how carefully you treated your job. Nothing good happened in our home by accident. You and dad had plans for us and I thank you for that. I don't know if I have ever told you this before, but I was always so proud to have you come to my school when I was in elementary, to pick me up, to give a presentation at career day, to go to my performances. I just want you to know that 100% of the time I thought you were always the most beautiful mom there. You are beautiful, strong in mind and personality, humble, and spiritual. I love you mom!

Katie
I love you so much! You are my exemplar. Thank you so, so much for being there when I needed you. I know, and have always known, that I can turn to you for any help that I may need. I really do have the best sister in the whole world. You never acted too cool to be around me and I love you so much for that. I hope I can teach Charlotte to be the kind of big sister that you always have been for me. You are S-M-A-R-T! And you are also sincere and loving. Thank you for showing me yourself. I love you so, so much.

Garrett
To the newest member of my family I just want you to know that I love you so much! You have made my sister more happy than I have ever seen her before and I cherish that about you. I want you to know that I think you are amazing both in action and in word. I hope that my children will look to you as another shining example of what it means to be a good man in our society. Thank you for that, in advance. I love you.

Nathan and Jodi
I love you both so very much. You have taught me what it means to be a newlywed and be poor and be happy. The two of you are the first examples that I actually was aware of outside of myself. Thank you so, so much for that. You both are also my first examples of good and righteous people that weren't raised by my parents. You taught me that different ways of doing things are ok and that I need to figure out what I'm going to do as a parent. Thank you. I love you both and I love your girls!

LeAnn
I love you so much more now than I ever have before! I love you not only for being a wonderful mother to my husband and a great grandma to my baby, but also for being a great role model for me. It is such a comfort to personally know, someone that has done the exact same things I am doing right now. I love that you support Daniel and me so very much. I am very fortunate to have such a great mother-in-law. It feels so good to be understood about where I'm coming from. Thank you. I love you.

John
To the father of my husband, I love you. Thank you for teaching my husband what it means to be a good father. I think that many of the things he does in our family are because he saw you doing them for him. Thank you for teaching him to work hard and to be honest. Thank you also for your continued love and support for all three of us right now. We love you so much. I hope that my children will also look to you as an example of a good father, husband, leader, and man. I love you.

There are many more people I have been thinking about lately and many more that I love very much. This post is getting long though so maybe I'll just call them and let them know. My love for each of my family members and friends has deepened so very much in the past few months that it amazes me. I thank the Lord for each of you daily.

The Explosion

Since the beginning of the week our baby girl has had a little bit of constipation. (Yes, this post will be about poop so if you don't want to hear it stop now.) She's still been going, it just takes her a long time of hard pushing. She would get this sad little worried look on her face and then push until she was red in the face to get it all out. I told Dan about it and he was a little worried so he said we should make sure she nurses enough on me and make her rice cereal with more pear juice than normal. Well, I'm here to declare operation roto router a success. Yesterday she again got the worried look on her face and my heart sank. I was worried I'd have to take her into the doctor for this problem since it had been going on for a few days. After 5 minutes of red faced pushing I figured she was done so I took her in her room to change her. We don't have a changing table, the floor works just fine for me, so I plopped her down on the changing pad on the floor and took off her diaper. I started to clean her up when she began to push again. I panicked. She pushed out a "plug" of harder poop.....and then.....the explosion of liquefied poop shot right out of her onto my front. All over my shirt and shorts and socks and the changing pad and the rug we have on the floor and her and the diaper I had under her. It was everywhere! And it was disgusting.

Her attitude changed amazingly after the incident. She must have felt better because she acted happier all day than she had for the past few. I was completely covered in poop, and, amazingly relieved by it.

PS. Sorry if this grosses you out. It was the only thing I could think to post about today.

A New Project

So for a while now I've been working on a new project that I've been reluctant to let out of the bag. I'm just so excited about it that I don't want to let fly into the unknown and then get rained on and me be sad. Well, I'm going to take the leap tonight.

I decided that I'm going to sew my own baby/little girl dresses and sell them. I decided this because I went to a children's boutique here a few weeks back and was shocked to see the prices on baby clothing that I knew I could make just as well for a whole lot less money. Ever since I committed myself to the idea it's pretty much taken hold of me. I take this as a good sign. I came up with a design that seems really cute to me and I love it. Now I'm stuck. For the past three nights I've been unable to sleep because I need to chose fabric and accents for the first dress. I have so many ideas and I just don't know what I want to do. Then it's a matter of matching my ideas to my available materials. I lay in bed just thinking about what is a good idea and what isn't and how I'm going to get things done. I have found that planning things takes much longer than actually doing them.

Another thing is in the past few days my eyes have been opened to the seemingly limitless possibilities of fabric that can be found at the click of a button. What to do, what to do. So now it's 11 pm, my husband went to bed a half hour ago, my baby went to bed 4 hours ago and she will get me up at 6 am whether I spend more time at this computer or not. I really should go to bed. Charlotte and I have a big day tomorrow at the Botanical Gardens. Plus, with this cough that she has now developed I know I wont sleep very well tonight. I should get to bed now so that I can jump start my sleeping. I can't though. I know if I go to bed I'll just lay there......thinking.

This really should be an easy decision. It's not like it's going to be the only dress I make. I should just go ahead and chose one and then move on to the next. It's just that I want to chose the best one. I want to fall in love with the one that I'm making and not think that I could do better.

Well, there it is. My new project. I am so excited!

Six Months

Happy Six Month Birthday! Oh she is so big!

Differences

Lately I have been discovering many differences between my husband and myself. Mostly I think these are funny and interesting. Here are a few:

I was measuring something to sew and I only wanted to round the measurements to the nearest 1/8 inch where the math came out 3/16. I told him I was rounding it and he said, "You can't build a house off 3/16 an inch." And I thought I was picky about being exact!

Last week, just after I had changed the sheets my husband asked, "How often do you change the sheets?" I just had to laugh when I told him, "We've been married for two years and you haven't noticed that I change the sheets once a week?" We both had a good laugh over that one.

The creative process is so much different between the two of us. My husband's process is completely inside of himself. He loves to create things, all on his own. I am the opposite where I love to have the creative process be collaborative. I know I have some ideas, but they get so much more defined and refined when I share them with others. Also, when others share their input I think it gets so much better.

My husband is so great at understanding this difference. He will always be my collaborator when I want one with my projects. Keep in mind that most of my projects include sewing. He is so awesome. Although he does tend to want gingham and plaid, for everything.

Just In Case

In case I ever fool myself into thinking I'm a tidy sewer:

Now I have to go clean that mess!

Last Night's Dinner

Last night we had pepper steak with a blackberry glaze. I broiled the steaks because we don't have a grill. This was my first attempt at broiling meat all by myself and I am so proud of myself because they turned out sooooo good. Plus, it was super easy. So now I know a good easy recipe that's impressive to serve people when they come over.

Yuck!

It really stinks when you and your baby both catch your husband's "allergies" at the same time. Luckily she's sleeping. I should be doing the same.

Jinxed

Well, I was sure I jinxed myself because the night after that last post she woke up five times! I don't want to jinx myself again so I wont tell you whether or not she slept the beautiful sleep of bliss last night. I wont tell you if I got a whole night's uninterrupted sleep and woke up well rested and happy this morning. I really don't want to jinx myself again.

Speaking of things that change when you have a baby I realized a few days ago something that I never thought would change. I actually run now! I was taking a two mile walk everyday, but the baby would always start to cry about 4 blocks from the end of the walk. So I adapted. Now I walk two blocks and run one for the whole two miles. It's great because she doesn't get mad about being there too long. Today I realized that walking two running one was getting pretty easy for me. I guess I'll have to switch things up a bit. I can't believe how much having a baby changes things!

In A Row

Now I don't want to jinx this, but I'm just so excited about it I have to say something. For the past two nights I have been able to go to bed at 10 and sleep uninterrupted until 6! Isn't that super exciting?! Charlotte has gone down to bed around 7:30 in the evening. She does wake up on and off before we go to bed at 10, but after that she stays asleep! For two nights in a row! Anyway, now that I've said something about it I'm sure she wont want to sleep at all tonight, but I'm excited at the progress she's making.

On another note, my husband is so funny! If any of you know him in real life you wont believe me about how silly he is, but he just is so silly! The other night he spent the whole evening talking and singing in a french accent. And by the way his french accent isn't really very good. He's just so funny! I just love being around him! I sort of love that he's only really silly inside his own home with his little family. It's like a secret awesomeness that Charlotte and I are let in on.

My New Favorite Photo

At least for today.

Isn't she awesome!

On another note, thanks for all the encouraging comments. I feel much better now. The freak out has passed.

Charlotte Sweb

I love my baby's name. It was my husband's idea to name her Charlotte, but when he suggested it I loved it so there you have it. I pretty much figured we were having a girl since we could agree on a girl name and would have had the fight of the century over the boys. Now I'm a little worried though. Every child that hears her name responds, "Like Charlotte's Web?" Now I know they're just excited to make the association and it doesn't bother me one bit. I'm just worried that eventually it might bother my baby. So what I'd like to hear from anyone that would like to tell me is something along the lines of, "It's OK, her name is awesome and she'll love it!" If you have any disparaging comments please keep them to yourself. Thank you for your support.

Pooped

My husband is so cute! He came home early from studying today because he said he just couldn't study any more. When I feel that way before a test I usually enjoy it and just give in and stop studying for good. I found that studying past my terminal capacity never really helped much anyway. Not so for my hubby! This is what he looks like right now:

And I'm sure he'll get up and review more before bed tonight!

Rainy Day Reds

Well today is day number two this week that I've spent the day completely in my apartment. The first time was becuase USPS took until 3PM to deliver something they told me I had to be present to get. Then they just threw the box onto our front porch without even knocking on our door. Maybe they knocked on the door to the people below us. Today it's been raining on and off all day. YUCK. Although with all the heat we've had I guess the rain is a good thing and I shouldn't complain.

On the plus side my baby learned two new "tricks" yesterday. She found out that she could pull herself up. Kind of awesome, kind of really scary. I don't know if I'm ready for a mobile little one especially since we haven't figured out what we're doing with the front steps to our place. The other trick is that when I'm holding her hands she figured out that not only can she raise and lower her feet individually, but she can move them forward to step. She would look at them as they went forward like it was so surprising that her feet were doing it. The success rate of this one is still very low, but it was something fun to show Dan when he got home yesterday.

Speaking of my husband his first test is tomorrow. He is working himself to the limit studying for it too. His drive to excell amazes me. I'm confident he'll do well on it, but you should all think good thoughts for him tomorrow.

Talents

All I can say is that it's a good thing my husband isn't vain at all. When we got married he suggested I buy clippers so I could cut his hair. I bought a set of clippers. I proceeded to be the sole person that cuts my husband's hair. I have absolutely no training, but I got a video tape with the set. (You can easily see where this is going I'm sure.) After watching the tape (which was produced in the 80's and had little to no value in teaching me to cut my husband's hair, that is unless he wants a flat top) I started in on his head. The first year of our marriage was a bad hair year for my husband. On the plus side we did find out that about a week and a half to two weeks later his hair looks just as good as if it were cut by a professional.

Now I would like to say that I think I'm pretty ok at cutting my husband's hair. I have developed my own system that I use every time. My idea is that with repetition I might just perfect the system. Here's how it goes:

1. Use the clippers on the bottom 2/3 of his head.
2. Get his whole head wet.
3. Realize that I still haven't shaved his neck and around his ears so towel dry is head.
4. Use the clippers on his neck.
5. Get his head wet again.
6. Get out the scissors.
7. Accidentally scrape the comb across the top of both ears while combing it out.
8. Cut a T to divide the top of his head into 4 quadrants. This I will use as a guide later so that it's all even.
9. Lose where the T was and make another one.
10. At this point I get sort of confused about the two different T's because of course one is shorter than the other. Since I can't make hair longer I use the shorter of the two T's.
11. Fill in the rest of the four quadrants so that the hair is longer on the top of his head than on the sides.
12. Proclaim the job finished.
13. Spend the rest of the night looking funny at him because I cut one side longer than the other.
14. Decide to do something about it the next night and cut the other side even with the first.
15. Spend the next two weeks finding spots that I didn't cut as short as others.
16. Call them "texture" when husband asks me about it.

All I can say is it's really good that my husband isn't vain. He honestly thinks I'm good at cutting hair! I think I'm better at cutting hair than I was and one day I might be good enough to get it right on the first try. By then though, he'll probably just go to the barber again. Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself!

Red Delicious

In case you didn't grow up in the apple state permit me to let you in on a little secret: Red Delicious apples are the worst kind of apple you could buy or snack on ever. If anyone tries to tell you that they love red delicious apples, they just haven't had any other kind before. Let me introduce you to the braeburn:





Or perhaps the gala:


Or really my favorite the pink lady:

I'm only showing you these three because they are my personal favorites, there are many, many different kinds of apples out there.







This little fact makes me think that there's got to be the same type of thing out there with all kinds of fruit that I don't know about. What about bananas I only know of two types, the regular yellow type and the plantain. Are there others? Would anyone recommend a different type than the classic yellow banana? What about oranges? Are navel oranges really the best type of orange? What I would really like to know about is grapes. After learning a tiny bit about viticulture I know there are about a bazillion types of grapes and the ones I usually buy in the grocery store don't really cut the mustard as far as fruit snacking is concerned. Any ideas on what the best type of grape is? How can I get my hands on them?